The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment undertakes analysis across a range of activities relating to environmental-economic accounting, natural resource management, biodiversity, national parks and heritage.
Strategic economic analysis and research contributes to the development of better environmental policy through economic policy analyses, and the development of innovative economic-environmental modelling capabilities.
Since 1998, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (and its predecessor organisations OEH, NPWS, DEC, DECC and DECCW) has produced a number of studies using input-output analysis to estimate the direct and flow-on impacts of individual parks and other reserves on local economies, as well as studies examining different aspects of the economic value of national parks, marine parks and other reserves in NSW.
The scope of this research has been widened to consider the impacts of protected areas in several broad regions of NSW. These studies focus on the economic structure of the regions in which the protected areas are located, and examine potential strengths and weaknesses of these economies, and trends which may affect the future contribution that the protected areas can make to regional economic activity.
The report about the Economic benefits of national parks and other reserves in New South Wales (PDF 69KB) summarises the approach used to estimate the direct and flow-on impacts of national parks and other reserves on local economies and local communities for:
Other regional economic impact assessments:
We have produced and commissioned a number of reports on economic issues relating to coastal and marine environments, including studies of the impacts and values of marine park establishment, management and use.
We are also in the process of finalising a number of internal reports on coastal and marine-related issues (including marine parks). These reports are still in the draft report stage, and have not yet been peer reviewed. Once these reports have been reviewed, the finalised reports will be published on the website.
This summary describes the findings of studies produced by DECCW in recent years which estimate the impact of national parks and other reserves on local economies and communities in NSW.
